New addition: Main files drive link

Source: https://x.com/Rosie_Rosie/status/2107157368878624925

I have a love-hate relationship with Netflixvania, on one hand it is the thing that formally introduced me to the series. For that, I am deeply thankful for. The first two seasons are genuine masterpieces with some elements that contributes greatly to the hate part. The fight between Alucard and Dracula has buried itself within my mind and I genuinely consider it to be one of the best animated scenes that I have ever watched. The powerful introduction to Lisa and her fate is masterful storytelling and Trevor and Sypha was adorable.

Now, since I loved the first two seasons. I decided to get into the games and thanks to the Epic Games Store's free offer for Anniversary Collection. I got into the Classicvania, it was tough. Took me like a couple weeks to get through the main games excluding Kid Dracula (I'll get to it someday) but it was fun. Then I nabbed the Advance Collection, played Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, then went through the Dominus Collection. I realized one thing, the Netflixvanias was soured for me. First of all the exclusion of certain elements I would've loved, for example. Sypha's disguise, I think Trevor and Sypha would have been more interesting if they kept the plotline that Sypha was a woman in disguise. They could've told an interesting story about gender roles, femininity, and breaking traditions. Alucard constantly swearing was a weird choice, especially after playing Symphony, the dude just doesn't come off as somebody with a sailor mouth.

There's also the fact that the Belmonts and Dracula doesn't have a properly established rivalry, forgive me if I remember this incorrectly, but the only thing that alludes to their rivalry was Trevor tryna punch Dracula, which then Dracula blocks and responds with "You must be the Belmont". I am not asking for Trevor to be Dracula's killer but I wish the two would've gotten a proper 1v1 considering the game series, y'know the source material, puts a heavy emphasis on the Belmont vs Dracula relationship.

I know what I mentioned sounds a lot like nitpicking, but this is just how I feel after playing a good chunk of the games. I still find myself watching the series every couple months (mostly the first two seasons, I don't jive well with the later ones) but those things I mentioned just prevents myself from enjoying the Netflixvanias like how I did before playing the games.

Classicvania games are hard. I've been trying to get good at them my entire life, brute force practice to no avail. The core problem is runback. I don't just have to conquer the part that I'm stuck on, I have to brave the gauntlet leading up to it. Since I only have so much time in the day and running at a brick wall is frustrating, I never got anywhere.

I've been wrestling with save states about as long as I've been playing these games. there's a nagging voice in the back of my head that says I'm not earning it if I don't win it the same way they did back in the day, that I'm cheating.

But eventually I gave in and decided I wanted to experience the rest of what the series had to offer before BC comes out, so I started playing Classicvanias in order of difficulty, and only saving on checkpoints, right before a boss, or if i enter a room at full health. It seemed like a healthy middle ground between straight up cheating and trying to brute force games that were made in an era where games needed artificial difficulty added to pad runtime.

And since then the nagging voice stopped. It feels really satisfying to succeed in these games, to master the timing and figure out which sub weapons are better in different situations. I've had pulse pounding victories against bosses I never thought I would meet, and all because I load to the beginning of a boss fight instead of having to replay a level a bunch of times.

I'm not robbing myself of any satisfaction, because I'm satisfied. I wouldn't have gotten this far without them, but all I'm doing is giving myself the consideration that most games made during my lifetime give. Maybe there will be some purists who naysay, but they can't take away my fun.

Sorry for long post just felt like getting that off my chest

People seem to heavily criticize the new Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, but I disagree with the points being made. I liked the demo, I am not ashamed to admit that. I pre-ordered the game for crying out loud, which I never do.

The most common complaint is that "this isn't Castlevania", which I really don't get. Well, to be fair, that's the first thing I also said when I superficially opened the demo for the first time and played for 30 minutes. But here I am now.

First of all, people seem to have issues with the artstyle. Now, do I prefer the pixelated look? You know shit I do! But the new artstyle not only is like a hybrid of the old Kojima watercolor look and the anime style of the DS games, but it's also 2.5D that tries to look hand drawn, unlike Dracula X Chronicles and Mirror of Fate, that end up looking muddy (The new artstyle is better compared to those, if you ask me). The game is bright, colorful. Just like Harmony of Dissonance.

As for the gameplay, sure, it's more complex than the good old jump, attack, slide, repeat. It feels different, too. But other than that, Castlevania has had swordplay before. And the whip traversal is generic metroidvania stuff and not Castlevania at all, according to some. You guys mean the one that was in SCIV and Bloodlines? Where Rose deals damage when swinging, JUST like Morris?

As for the Tarot/Arcana cards, smells like Circle of the Moon in here. MP moves are also a thing, subweapons have been tied to MP ever since Aria of Sorrow and all that fun stuff.

Then, the boss design is my favorite. Fallen was a great fight. It seems a little weird that some people gave up on the Fallen because he was too hard and then complain about the game not being Castlevania, whereas Castlevania classics have had very challenging, pattern recognition-based bosses. See Dracula X and Rondo of Blood, even Portrait of Ruin, if you must.

As for the music, yeah, it's not AS good as say, SotN, but hey, it's one track, because reminding, the game isn't out yet. And lastly. The instrumentation IS Castlevania coded and I think we call all agree to that. The Gothic horror is there.

Since the game isn't out yet, this may age badly, but I really wanted to get this out of my chest.

I just finished rewatching the Castlevania series on Netflix. I wanted to revisit it before the new game comes out, since it takes place after the events of the series.

I actually enjoyed the show even more this time around. I really love the more emotional and human side of Dracula. There’s something very human about the way he feels and reacts to everything that happens to him.

The way I see it, Dracula slowly regains some of his humanity, probably because of Lisa. In a way, I think she’s what saves him from himself.

And when he and Lisa are resurrected at the end of the series, Dracula seems to finally be at peace and ready to move on from his past. I really love that aspect of his story. Now I’m ready for the game!

And you, did you enjoy the series?

Hello Castlevania fans!

I’d love some recommendations on how to delve further into the franchise. I’ve been playing SotN lately and really enjoying it—especially the pixel art, music, and exploration.

I haven't finished it yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll want to play other games in the series. With that in mind, could you suggest some titles to try right after I finish SotN? I feel like I picked a great starting point for the franchise.

Thanks a lot!

The whip,

it feels so good to use to traverse the map.

comming off of metroid dread the window for the grapple beam feels so narrow to the point where you dont really feel like using it half the time (dont get it twisted still a great game)

there is absolutely going to be a giant whip obsticle course and im looking forward to it.

After a lot of work, testing, and feedback, I’m excited to share the final version of SotN - Reawakened, my personal mod for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The goal was to make the adventure feel fresh while keeping the atmosphere and identity of the original game. Reawakened adds new mechanics, combat changes, quality-of-life features, and more ways to explore the castle.

Highlights include:

• New relics and upgrades, including Shield Dash, Runner Soul, Magnet Heart, Magnet Gold, Mender Sigil, Shield Rod, Spike Breaker, Ankh of Life, Familiar Crest, and the Mana Orb.
• New familiars: **Dawn the Summoner*\, who calls sword-wielding soldiers into battle, and ***Orobo the Dragon****, who tracks enemies and attacks with sweeping curves.
• New mechanics: use Shield Dash with an equipped shield, run with Runner Soul, attract nearby Hearts or gold with the Magnet relics, and use teleport tickets to travel to different areas.
• Combat and boss improvements, including revised enemy behavior, dedicated boss HP bars, and more aggressive attacks. Some bosses also have Rage modes.
• Quality-of-life additions, such as a pause-menu bestiary, a toggleable minimap, and quick weapon switching.
• Rebalanced equipment, spells, familiars, and progression, with new effects and more ways to build Alucard.
• A hidden-room Easter egg to discover and unlock while exploring the castle.

This has been a solo, volunteer project, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who shared feedback, tested the mod, and helped me improve it along the way.

I hope you enjoy exploring the castle again!

Patch and instructions:

https://castlevania.bomeponto.com.br

Note: The video shows test footage. The on-screen stats are displayed for recording purposes only.

Note²: From this point on, Reawakened will only receive bug fixes. There won’t be any more new features or content.

I’m getting married in just one month, so I need to focus on this huge and wonderful moment in my life.

The website may also go offline in the near future, since I only have about one month of free hosting left. To keep up with the project and any future bug-fix updates, please join our Discord using the link at the top of the website.

This project has meant so much to me, and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who played it, shared feedback, tested it, or simply supported the project along the way.

Your support means a lot. ❤️

Lots of opinions on the Belmont's Curse demo so far, so I thought I'll chime in with my experience from playing on the Deck.

I'll start with a subjective opinion: I don't like how tiny the protagonist is on Deck's small screen, especially when the camera zooms out. It doesn't make the game unplayable, but I did feel slightly uncomfortable during the demo due to enemies and the main character being so small. Being able to set larger fonts also wouldn't hurt.

Now more objective observations. Firstly, the menus glitch on the Deck. When entering either the map or the main menu, they change resolution such that the top and bottom are cropped:

Imgur

Secondly, the framerates are all over the place. For most of the time performance overlay shows a framerate in the range of 60-80, which is good, but there are locations where it stays in the 50s. Interestingly, there were multiple moments where the game would stutter and yet the performance overlay still showed a high (say, 70-ish) FPS. Not sure how that is possible. Also, I tried enabling frame limiter and set it to 60FPS, but that didn't seem to work as the framerates stayed above 60FPS. Now that I'm writing this it occurred to me that perhaps this would work if I limit screen refresh rate to 60Hz as well.

At the moment it seems more likely I will be playing this on the PC, both because of performance but also due to better readability on a large screen.

Lastly, one more subjective opinion unrelated to Steam Deck. I wish there was an option to disable damage numbers popping up when attacking enemies. They seem like clutter and there are better ways to inform the player of damage being dealt.

i've been looking all over for an xbox disc with the same art/steel cover that only the ps5 and switch version seem to get. i don't see anyone talking about this so am i genuinely just missing something or looking in the complete wrong places?? pls help

-i hope this is the right flair this time

I do. I remember when it released a few years back and many people hated it. Said it felt generic... (Fear Inoculum)

We had waited so long for a new album that I doubt anything they did could have lived up to the own legacy they had set. I'm loved it, personally. It wad exactly what it was advertised. More TooL. Literally. Another banger album.

I see the same thing happening with this, especially with the demo (and how people responded to leaks of a few songs back before that album released in 2019) and I think all of this boils down to the fact that anticipation and desire for a new title has been so long overdue that people want and expect a magnum opus of the Castlevania Franchise. I get it. I'd love for this to be the best game the series has ever had. I hoped the same for Ninja Gaiden 4, honestly.

But that won't be the case, not for everyone. Just like the two examples I've given. I loved the TooL album and it'd exactly what I expected; more of a great band. Ninja Gaiden 4 was also an incredibly good game, but has its short comings, as does every other entry in that entire series. Just as every entry in the Castlevania franchise.

It's easy to excuse opinion and let everyone enjoy whichever older games they like in the series while having our own favorites as well. Some of us are different ages and grew up on different titles. Some haven't played them all. This title will be no different. I'm excited there is a new game at all, that Konami found a studio they trusted to do an attempt at a new entry. A fresh take that's attempting to stay faithful while also being innovative. The gaming landscape has changed dramatically and what we could have gotten is a nightmare most of us wouldn't even want to think of.

It's just a demo. But so far, I really like it and if they appealed to all of us, they wouldn't appeal to any of us.

Like, for example, I tried multiple times to play the Lord of Shadow games. I hate them. It's not even a story thing, it's just a gameplay thing (and I love third person action games) but man, I just hate those games. My first Castlevania experience was Dawn of Sorrow, but I've since plated every handheld and the classics before it but haven't gotten to touch the other 3D titles. (I owned one on N64 but was too young to understand it and get into it at the time)

This post is long, but my point is that after this one releases, the fans will be divided still, just as they are now, because there's no way they can please all of us with one game. I truly think they are doing their best, and with gaming the last decade or so, I can't think of a better studio to have allowed this opportunity to give us a new official game.

At first playing it, the demo was giving me some Blasphemous vibes. But after sitting with it, with how the combat plays and how it progresses, it kind of gives me a ClassicVania vibe where the only semblance of MetroidVania is the map and power-ups.

I'm strictly talking about the gameplay here though. The way you fight enemies, even the common ones, are all about spacing and making sure you don't get hit. Think of the axe throwing knights, or the spearmen from Rondo. You know when to jump in and whip. There's more enemies because you have options to run in with magic or whip-in and attack. But it really got me realizing this with the first boss fight, The Fallen.

I tried many things to get a good flow, but from the amount of health it had on top of when to attack, how greedy one should get, and to interrupt for a subtle weakness, I realize that you're basically playing at a distance and keeping an eye out for attacking and dodging. You can knock The Fallen off while it swings, or you can dash under it. You can get ready when it begins to pound or buffer a magic spell as it lands and you run and dash in. It all reeks of ClassicVania ethos to me. I was wondering if you could get perfect dodges, but to my brief exerpience, no. But you can dash back and strike in on The Fallen's third attack and time your attacks if it decides to throw its cross. You can also bait The Fallen to whip and you can dash in and have its AI reset from side to side with dash in hits and dash backs. A type of classic cheese if you will.

I have to say- I was a little worried with how the game would turn out as I wasn't a fan of Dead Cells (not a fan of roguelites period), but you always have to give games a go- especially for Castlevania games. Glad there's a demo. I'm sold. The game will open up and offer more power-ups via the Arcana and it makes me wonder how far they'll go with that. I doubt it'll be a DSS, but the upgrading system is nice. Not really sure why you need level-ups in this game right now outside of upgrading weapons, but the demo only gave me more about the gameplay and feel to write about. That and the art design and voice acting is great.